Banfield Pet Hospital

I dropped my pet off at 9am for pre scheduled appointment. While there we scheduled his comprehensive exam. By 530pm I hadn't heard from the vet so I attempt calling. I say attempt because this has the be the hardest area to ever get through to within petsmart. When I finally spoke with someone she said they tried calling me at 1pm. At this time the vet gets on the phone to ask about the "itching" her only suggestion was to purchase some injection and if declined use benedryl. Nothing about the comprehensive exam at this time. I arrive to pick up my puppy who I can hear howling in the back. Someone brings him to me soaking wet. She says I tried to dry him off. He was so afraid that he was just back there shaking and sweating the whole time. Poor thing. Maybe it would have been nice to try and phone me again since 1pm since no one heard from me. He has been going here for 6 years. What happened this time. But I will own missing the call. When I pick him up the receptionist gives me some papers. I pay and proceed to leave when I notice no one has said a thing to me about his comprehensive exam. I go back to the desk to ask for them. She prints me out the papers and I take them and leave. No one ever spoke to me about the results. I notice several abnormal findings that indicate the vet will discuss with you ..... that didn't happen. I don't see any of his lab values on the report. At this point I am not even confident anything was done aside from traumatize him. I have lost total comfort and trust with their services and will. It give them another dollar. At my last visit I was frustrated as well. I walked home with a report of an abnormal finding. When I called and asked (yes I had to ask again about the findings) I was told they entered that on the wrong patient (loss of trust). My visit this time was all I can take. I will be cancelling my plan and finding other services. I've been patient for 6 years with Banfield. I've seen many changes and always felt as if they were working on improving their services. But we are going backwards here. As a nursing director at a pediatric facility all I could think yesterday was, I sure hope none of our patients ever go home feeling like I felt. It's not worth it. Just find another vet with a wellness plan. Read Less

it's convenient, the staff is always pleasant. I do feel they tend to want to do unnecessary tests (I assume that is "corporate policy), however they has always been very open to talking through all of the options available. I have brought all of my 5 dogs there and will continue. Because I am there so often I do wish check in and check out was a quicker process, but for the most part I enjoy your relationships and recommend them to any pet owner. Read Less

Horrible business. Animal cruelty at this facility.  Incompetent veterinarian. My dog is having withdrawals because they were too busy to call in her meds refills that were requested weeks ago. I hope they are closed down permanently. 10 phone calls and multiple requests from pharmacy and still my dog is without her meds.  She has anxiety from being in shelters and now she is suffering because of these morons. Read Less

This is the first center we started bringing our babies when my family first moved to Chicago. I called because the closest location to us couldn't see my sick baby, once calling this location they felt my dog needed care and got him an appointment. I truly appreciate them!!! ThanksRead Less

My dog a long haired Chihuahua, had to get four teeth pulled. When I picked him up he was his normal self- not groggy, sleepy or out of it in any way. Also appeared to be in very little pain then and even days after the procedure. I'm happy with the work done at the Canal location and I can Easily say my dog is too. Read Less

Horrible My cat had a bad scratch on her chin. The vet shaved the skin, wiped it off with a wet paper towel and then charged $400 bucks. I had to join their discount plan which only cut the bill in half. I paid $100 on the spot then head to do a payment plan for the next year. I hate this place. No ointment or antibiotics , just a wet paper towel. They already had my credit card otherwise i would have just walked out. SCAM Read Less

I took my cat to this location two days ago to have her eye looked at. Unfortunately, I was not able to get her to her regular vet and she needed to see a vet for her swollen eye right away. I initially called about 5 places in the area to get quotes. Upon calling this location, they told me their fee was $43 which would be waived since we are first time patients. That is a great way to get clients in the door for business IF you treat them well and IF you honor your price. On my final bill, it had two costs of $43, one was waived for a free check-up, but the second was for the visit itself. What a scam! I specifically called to ask how much it would be to see her and determine what was wrong. That was the first thing wrong.While in our appointment, the doctor (Lou, I believe) took NO time whatsoever to explain any of what was wrong with my cat. She named off a bunch of things that I of course would have no clue what they are, and took my cat in the back for blood work. She also suggested an x-ray for what may or not be a fracture in the eye, another $250. I told her I could not afford it at the moment and to please treat it as an infection, since my cat is showing more symptoms of infection rather than fracture. After my cat comes back to the room, the doctor comes in and says she recommends one other test (FIV). I declined, because I couldn't afford it on top of all of the other tests she decided to run without explaining them all to me. Turns out, they ran the test anyway WITHOUT my consent. It was nice to know that my cat was negative, but seriously? How unprofessional! I asked a million questions and she seemed so agitated when really all I was trying to do was get a better understanding of what these terms meant. After a half hour and her telling me she was going to the back to check the blood work, I never saw her again. She had her assistant, who by the way was very nice, complete the rest of the appointment. Any additional questions I had for the doctor had to go through him running to the back and asking her. No thank you from her, no nice meeting you, NOTHING! My bill came out to be almost $200, when really any other vet would've done the same thing for much less. When it was time to pay (again the assistant handed this process), the doctor ran out of the room of another patient and told her assistant that he gave me the wrong medicine. I'm sorry, WHAT? I am depending on you to help bring my furry friend back to good health. What am I paying you all of this money for? What if I had already left? Well, turns out I had all of the correct medication but one of the two wrote down the wrong medication in my cats file. So basically had someone not noticed, the wrong information would've been in my cats file. Even when the doctor ran back out, still no notion from her and she completely ignored me. They scheduled me for a follow-up next week. I will be cancelling this appointment and taking my cat elsewhere, somewhere they care about their business and clients. If my cat ends up needing an x-ray, I will get it done and it won't cost me a fortune. I forget the correct name, but they did offer me some contract that is supposed to reduce office price visits for me, but I declined it knowing that I would not be coming back. DO NOT get scammed by these people! If this medicine works, I'll be happy that I took my cat and that it worked. Otherwise, I DO NOT AND WILL NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE TO ANYONE. That says a lot considering this is my first Yelp review, since I've never so strongly felt so terrible about a business before, especially considering this business doesn't directly impact us (just our pockets) but our loved ones. Please find a different vet, clearly they only care about money here, and I truly hope my cat felt no pain when they ran the tests on her in the back room. Read Less

I took a week old puppy here because he felt and he was hurt...he couldn't stop crying and he obviously was injured..and these people still had the audacity to tell me that they couldn't check him because they were overbooked.. they told me I had to make an appointment for the following Monday. Their waiting room wasn't even full. Thankfully, I took my dog to a doctor at 1248 w Washington blvd where they took really good care of him and they were very polite. Once they saw me coming in they immediately rush to help me, it didn't matter if there were people waiting, they did what was humane to do. This place does not care about an animals well being, they only care of profit. From now on, I am cancelling my dogs insurance plan and I am switching them to the vet at Washington blvd. it's really messed up that they turn down a 6 day old puppy because they reached their capacity. Read Less

I really don't know how I feel about this Banfield location. First of all, the Petsmart is in the basement. It was not fun. Like I mentioned in my review for Petsmart, that small patch of turf for dogs to do their business is so gross and off-putting.I came here rather than my usual location at Lincoln Park South because my puppy had a really bad case of diarrhea during the day. I was hesitant to do a drop-off but I did any way as it was the only availability they had. When I dropped her off, I told her handler that she definitely needs to go out again. The handler nodded her head as if she understood. When I went to pick her up, they took so long with the check out process and my pup was whimpering to go out. She didn't make it out the door and... I don't know how to put this delicately, but the sheer amount of poo that came out of her just showed that she wasn't taken out.As for a positive, Dr. Magida was great with explaining what she was going to do with Millie. I didn't get to meet her in person, but she called me to tell me Millie had giardia and what the next steps were. Read Less

This Banfield hospital has been so good to us! Recently, we had a traumatic incident where our dog was attacked at a dog park. We got an appointment right away at Banfield and were thoughtfully supported through the dog's treatment and follow-up appointments. Dr Peng was awesome! He remembered our dog from his recent wellness exam and therefore had a good understanding of his temperament. He clearly loves his job, and really cares about his animal patients. I am so grateful that we had him as our vet through this difficult time. I felt like he loved our dog as much as we do - which is all you could ever desire from a vet!  Thank you Dr. Peng! Read Less

DO NOT GET ANY PRESCRIPTIONS FILLED FOR YOUR PET BY BANFIELD. Ask the doctor for a script and take it and have it filled by Walgreens or something similar. My dog needed an antibiotic for a hotspot and they wanted $60 for a 2 week supply. I thought that seemed ridiculous so I chose to get a script for the medicine and have it filled at Walgreens. So happy I did! The prescription was $4 at Walgreens. Read Less

Be very, very careful selecting this place. I took my dog here for about 7 years. Every time I took him they tried to up sell me on everything. Even though the visit was supposed to be covered, I never walked out of there without some additional charge. At the last visit the vet decided we shouldn't do the annual included dental cleaning. They still billed me for it and when I refused to pay it they sent me to collections. I have spent many hours trying to deal with this. Meanwhile I have found another vet in the neighborhood that is far more caring and doesn't try to push my to spend an extra $200 every time I walk through the door.Read Less

My husband and I took our cat in for a much needed check up. We were nervous because she has not had as much experience with the vet. We were also tentative going here because of some of the bad reviews, but we were pleasantly surprised and impressed at the care our cat got.  Kristi Magida attended to our cat, and she was very friendly, professional and put both us and our cat at ease.  She took care of our cat's medical needs immediately and skillfully while we waited.  All in all not too expensive and we will be going back.The only negative is the amount of time we waited with no communication as to how long we would wait and when our waiting would end. Read Less

I've had many different vets over the years because I move so often.  However, out of all the vets I have been to, this one provided me with the worst experience.Simply put, my dog needed immediate vet attention, and her primary vet's office was closed.  I brought her here where they ran numerous tests and still couldn't figure out what was wrong with her.I was told one of the tests would take 30 minutes, so they suggested that I walk around the shopping center and come back.  I agreed and started to walk away.  The cashier called me back and said that ,because my current bill was over $150, I couldn't leave unless I paid at least that amount.  Words cannot describe how angry this made me.  My dog was not eating, drinking, or going to the bathroom.  They ran numerous tests and didn't know what was wrong with her.  I was on the verge of tears, and then I was told, essentially, "We are afraid you won't come back so you need to pay at least $150 of this bill before you go."  Yes, they caught on to my scheme.  I waited until they suggested I go for a walk, all so that I could leave my dog (of more than 8 years at the time) in order to avoid paying the bill.I paid the entire amount of the bill, but I could not believe they would even suggest that I would leave my sick dog - a dog so sick I couldn't wait until Monday to take her to her regular vet - because I didn't want to pay the bill.  It truly was unbelievable.At the end of the day, I walked out with a $350 bill and no answer as to what was causing my dog's symptoms.  The next day, I took her to her regular vet.  I was asked to obtain all the records from the urinalysis and other tests they took so my vet wouldn't have to redo them.  It took three phone calls from me, two phone calls from my vet, and a period of six hours before Banfield finally sent my records to my vet.  It didn't take long for my vet to diagnose the problem, give my dog some fluids and medication, and send her home.I have never, in my life, experienced such a low level of professionalism in any veterinary setting.  Generally, in my experience, people who work with animals tend to be sensitive and caring.  This simply wasn't the case here.There's a reason the reviews for this pet hospital are so low.  Stay away.  There are so many better options in the Loop, from the West Loop through the South Loop.  Unless you're just looking for flea medication recommendations, just stay away from here. Read Less